Collage Backgrounds for Valentines

In my technique nights this coming week, we are using the theme of collage backgrounds and Valentines!  So I kind of went a little crazy in my Craft Cave yesterday.  I think it was a result of denying myself the pleasure of vintage stamping for too long.  You wouldn't believe how many stamp sets I had on my desk at once!!   But I had fun.  I'm not going to lie and say the results were stellar at first.  It's been so long that I had to get back into the Vintage Groove again, but I eventually came up with a design that I liked:

•  My first attempt had a solid collage background and because there are collage elements in the main panel as well, there was not enough contrast or a real focal point.  Cutting up the background into two smaller pieces and layering them with Raspberry Ripple really helped.
• There are a good many stamp sets represented here.  On the main panel, I've used Hearts a Flutter, Off the Grid, Background Builders, Papaya Collage and Petite Pairs!  Whew!
• My palette for this card is Raspberry Ripple, Basic Gray, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake and Very Vanilla.

• For the background, I used En Francais, the Very Vintage Wheel, Clockworks, Gorgeous Grunge and the butterfly from Papaya Collage, although you can't really see it.  Basically, to make a vintage background collage, you just layer stamps in coordinating inks until you get the look you want.
• A doily and a bow in Raspberry Ripple Stitched Satin Ribbon add some little touches that balance and enhance the look.  

There are so many stamp sets involved here that if I gave you the links to both the wood mount AND the clear mount, the list would go on for ages, so this list contains only one of the two.  You can easily navigate the my On-Line Store to find the other if you need it.

• Hearts A Flutter
• Papaya Collage
• Off The Grid
• Clockworks
• Gorgeous Grunge 
• Very Vintage
• En Francais
• Background Builders Wood-Mount
• Petite Pairs - Clear-Mount Stamp
• Crumb Cake 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Raspberry Ripple 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock
• Very Vanilla 8-1/2X11 Card Stock
• Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad
• Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad
• Raspberry Ripple Classic Stampin' Pad
• Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad
• Raspberry Ripple 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon
• Tea Lace Paper Doilies
• Envelope Punch Board
• Stamping Sponges

Stubborn Muse

Can one accuse one's muse of being stubborn?  Of not showing up when you need it?  I'm about to make that accusation, because I struggle with my ideas not happening until well into the evening.  That keeps me up late writing my blog and I'm sure it doesn't help that I need sleep when I'm writing it.  Those muses need to stop their eternal little round dances there and pay attention to my creative needs!

That was the case yesterday.  Mind you, I didn't get started until late afternoon anyway, and we took a break to go out to dinner, but still!!

I just got the new Circle Card Thinlits die and I really wanted to play with it.  I grabbed some Bermuda Bay cardstock and got started.

• I'm still in love with the colours in the Eastern Elegance Design Series Paper, which is what I used on today's project:  Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry with Whisper White.
• I used several stamp sets to make this card:  Papaya Collage for the butterfly and embellishment he's mounted on; A Dozen Thoughts, for the sentiment on this page...

• ...and Chalk Talk for the sentiment on the other side, as well as The Open Sea for the globe image.
• Those cute little chevron arrows come from one of the several thinlits that come with the basic card template.  The Scallop Circle is also one of the accompanying thinlits.

Here's how they work:

        

Aren't they cool?  I'm currently awaiting the Label version, which was back ordered but is now on it's way!

Okay, here's the card in 3D - sort of :

You've got to give these a try!  We've always made these "Swing Cards", but it always used to take at least ten minutes to get the basic card base cut properly and now it takes seconds!

Hope my muse was able to help you today if yours was MIA!

Stamps:  Papaya Collage (w132055; c126612); A Dozen Thoughts (w131056; c131059); The Open Sea (w128454; c123032) and Chalk Talk (w130631; c130634)
Paper:  Eastern Elegance DSP (130131); Bermuda Bay (131197), Crushed Curry (131199) and Whisper White (100730) cardstock
Ink:  Classic Stampin' Pads in Bermuda Bay (131171) and  Crushed Curry (131173)
Tools:  Circle Card Thinlits (133480), 1 3/4" Circle Punch (119850), Extra-Large Oval Punch (119859)

Chalk Talk Bundle

Circle Card Thinlits

Eastern Elegance DSP

Papaya Collage Stamp Set

The Open Sea Stamp Set

A Dozen Thoughts Stamp Set

1 3/4" Circle Punch

It's Always Good to be Home!

Well, I am back home after an AMAZING Stampin' Up Convention 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah!  I wanted to write a great blog post with ideas and samples,  my last swap card and some photos from Convention, and I promise that tomorrow I will get that done, but tonight, I am just exhausted and I keeppppzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!


.....OH!....  Yeah, I keep falling asleep at the computer, so I think that I had better hit the sack and share a better blog post tomorrow, with (and no one needs to know I am giving out hints here) .....

  BLOG CANDY!!  

In honour of Convention 2013!!  Stay posted Tuesday morning, bright and early and join in a little of the fun of the convention experience!.

But I will post a photo of the last swap card that I did for convention. More info on how to create it again tomorrow.

This one is actually my favourite!  It uses the chalkboard technique.  I see another video coming....

Thanks for dropping by today!

Framed!

I've just recently become enamoured with frames - old frames, weathered and ornate frames, repainted and distressed frames.  Keep your eyes open for me because I have lots of plans for them especially now that I finally was able to buy the Typeset Alphabet Bigz Dies!  So excited about all I'm going to be able to do with the letters.  Keep tuned for some great classes ahead!

We returned from visiting my daughter in Fort St. James today - brutal drive!  Eleven hours of sitting in the car!  Not my idea of fun, in fact I can hardly bear to be sitting here typing this blog post!  But it was worth it to spend some time with her and her family, including my grandson, Kesten!

I needed a creative fix when I got home, so I worked on a card idea I formulated in the car during those eleven interminable hours!  It involves a frame!  Guess where it's from:

Give up?  Okay, I'll tell you.  It's from the Papaya Collage stamp set.  It was one of the first stamp sets I purchased when the 2012/13 Catalogue came out, but after using it a few times, decided I didn't really like it, especially the frame, mostly because I always just stamped the frame, usually in black.  

But recently, I realized that it would perfectly frame some of the newer sentiments, like Feel Goods, shown here, and it would be great embossed in white or some other colour. ( It would work well with the Chalkboard Technique as well!)  So I decided to resurrect it and use it on a vintage-designed card like this one. 

I stamped some designs from the Established Elegance stamp set in StazOn Black on First Edition Specialty Designer Series paper.  I then punched out the bird, wing and branch shapes using the Bird Builder punch, and the large and small butterflies using the Elegant Butterfly and the Bitty Butterfly punches.  Then I sponged all the edges using Soft Suede Ink.  The card base and sentiment panel are Soft Suede, and the Very Vanilla back panel is embossed using the Lacy Brocade Embossing folder, held over from the Holiday Mini Catalogue, and available until May 31.  I used this method to tie a bow using Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon.  Then I added another bow, tying it onto the first one and trimming the ends.  The addition of a few Pearl Basic Jewels completed the look.

And MORE news from Stampin' Up:  They are changing the packaging for the wood mount stamps in a way I think you are all going to like!  Check it out here:

Did you catch some of those sneak peeks of the new catalogue as well?  No?  Better watch it again.

By the way, if some of you ordered Not Quite Navy card stock on the weekend, it is now completely out of stock, and they may not have been able to fill your order.  If this applies to you, Stampin' Up will be issuing refunds starting in a couple of weeks.  Boy, when they say "while supplies last", they mean it.  It's important to act quickly!

Have a great weekend, and we'll see you on Monday!

Stamps:  Papaya Collage (w126610; c126612); Established Elegance (w122530; c122532); Feel Goods (w129681; c129684)
Paper: First Edition Specialty Designer Series Paper (121878); Soft Suede (115318) and Very Vanilla (101650) card stock
Ink:  StazOn Jet Black (101406); VersaMark (102283)
Accessories:  Stampin' Emboss Powder in White (109132); 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon in Crumb Cake (122332); Pearl Basic Jewels (119247); Large Pearl Basic Jewels (125577)
Tools:  Lacy Brocade Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (127819); Big Shot (113439); Bird Builder Punch (117191); Elegant Butterfly Punch (127526); Bitty Butterfly Punch (129406)

Established Elegance

Papaya Collage

Feel Goods

Bitty Butterfly Punch

Bird Builder Punch

Lacy Brocade TIEF

Crumb Cake Seam Binding Ribbon

First Edition Specialty Designer Series Paper

A Quick Post

One of my favourite crafting blogs is written by Dawn Olchefske.  I love her creativity, but most of all, her tutorials, which are clear and easy to follow....and she has such a nice-sounding voice!  Her latest post introduced a technique she calls "Triple Time Stamping"  and she created a beautiful card that I decided to CASE.

One of my daughters is going through a particularly difficult time right now and I wanted to let her know how much she is loved and thought about.  This elegant card seemed to be the right touch for this instance.

I used Raspberry Ripple, a rich and beautiful new In Colour, both in the card base and mattes and as the ink for the images.  Two of the stamps sets, Papaya Collage and One in a Million are new to the 2012-2013 Idea Book and Catalogue.  The background stamp is from an old favourite, Creative Elements.   The card is created by cutting the three panels of Whisper White cardstock and temporarily adhering them with a small spot of Snail adhesive, then stamping on them like they were a single sheet.  You then take them apart and adhere them permanently on their mattes except for the largest one.  Before adhering that one, you add the Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon and cut out the sentiment and it's matte using the smallest and next to smallest Labels Framelits.  I popped these up by mounting them with Stampin' Dimensionals, and added some Basic Rhinestones on the flourishes.  By the way, I got the flourishes on the sentiment panel by using a Crumb Cake Stampin' Write marker on the tips of the Creative Elements sentiment frame. (See below).

I used a single piece of Whisper White, stamped again with the flourish from Creative Elements and the rose from Papaya Collage, along with the sentiment from Word Play, for the inside of the card.

I'm hoping that it lifts her spirits, as she has lifted the spirits of so many others in the past.

Here are some of the Stampin' Up products used today:

One in a Million Stamp Set

Papaya Collage Stamp Set

Creative Elements Stamp Set

Framelits Labels Collection

Have a Stampin' Sunday!

Card Swapping

Here in the paper-crafting world, people really get into doing card swaps.  You get a group of anywhere from 4 - 40 crafters and each crafter makes enough of 1 design for everyone else. Then you share so that everyone gets 4 - 40 different cards for their sample file or to give away.  Kinda like a cookie exchange, only in paper.  It's a great way to share creative ideas and get every one's mojo flowing.  Of course, you are expected to do your best work, and therein lies the anxiety.  What is good enough?? Is my work good enough?  This unease is amplified if you have time and/or budget constraints. 

We were doing a card swap at our monthly team meeting yesterday and I wanted to create something special, but I had only one day, after other deadlines were taken care of, in which to complete 8 cards.  I was also trying to do a colour challenge for The Paper Players this week.  I started out with quite an involved design using Papaya Collage, a new stamp set from the 2012-13 Stampin' Up Idea Book and Catalogue.  Unfortunately, it involved a BUNCH of fussy cutting.

 Also, the new Holiday Mini was just posted on the Demonstrator Website, (a sneak peek for demonstrators only*) and, of course, I HAD to spend some time looking at that.  So by the time I really got down to work, I knew I could never finish in time for the event, and I had to do some simplifying!

I cut the three roses down to one and used a different embossing folder for the Lucky Limeade panel, and here is what resulted:

I'm not sure which one is better.  I like the cluster of three roses, but I also like the background of ginkgo leaves.  Hmmm!  Which one do I submit for The Paper Players 99 colour challenge?

(*If you want in on the new catalogue sneak peeks, pre-orders, discounts and many other benefits, ask me about joining my team.  It is very affordable and the perks are amazing! )